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Monday, October 27, 2014

Vatican City, 25 October 2014 (VIS) –
Yesterday, 24 October, Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin
spoke at the conference organised by the Kellogg Institute for
International Studies dedicated to the theme of “Human Dignity and
Human Development”, marking the inauguration of the University of
Notre Dame Global Gateway.

The cardinal observed that “the
topics which have been discussed show that, in speaking of the
relationship between development and human dignity, the terms
'economy', 'economic systems' and the like, can all be employed as
synonyms for the term 'development'. This in itself helps us to
appreciate better the challenges we face in promoting human dignity.
Development is in fact closely linked to the proper management of
resources in poorer countries, and the economic decisions made by
wealthy countries, which have positive or negative repercussions on
the economy of developing countries. But the more fundamental reason
for beginning with economics is that the Church’s social teaching
has constantly emphasised that the greatest obstacles to universal
and integral human development are found in a distorted vision of man
and economic activity, one which threatens the dignity of the human
person”.

The secretary of State remarked on the
continuity between of Francis' magisterium and that of his
predecessors, especially Benedict XVI, who “using very similar
words, warn that the problems of development and the just regulation
of the economy remain insoluble without a holistic vision of the
human person and a commitment to constant and coherent moral
standards firmly grounded in the natural law and the pursuit of the
common good”. As Benedict XVI writes in his encyclical “Caritas
in Veritate”, “development will never be fully guaranteed through
automatic or impersonal forces, whether they derive from the market
or from international politics. Development is impossible without
upright men and women, without financiers and politicians whose
consciences are finely attuned to the requirements of the common
good”.

“Conversion of mind and heart is thus
required if economic activity as a whole is to be genuinely directed
to integral human development”, Cardinal Parolin emphasised. “A
'Promethean faith' in the market, or in other ideologies and forms of
aprioristic thinking, will need to be replaced by faith in God and a
transcendent vision of men and women as God’s children. This in
turn will lead to intellectual conversion in the sense of developing
an economic science and praxis which begins with an integral
understanding of the human person, that is placed at the service of
human development, and is capable of orienting production and
consumption to authentic human fulfilment, in our relationship with
God and with our neighbour”.